To William Wordsworth, ‘the meanest flower that
blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears’.
Which means, ‘thoughts’ can be sparked,
and ‘memories’ kindled, when one’s consciousness is directed towards an
object.
I repeat –
Thoughts can be sparked, and memories
kindled, when one’s consciousness is directed towards an object.
To Wordsworth, since his conscious thoughts are directed towards the ‘flower’, it makes thoughts by the number well up
within him!
To Marcel Proust, in like fashion, and I quote
- the past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of
intellect, in some material object (in the sensation which that material object
will give us) which we do not suspect. And as for that object, it depends on
chance whether we come upon it or not before we ourselves must die.
Hence, when, Proust, weary after a dull
day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, raises to his lips a spoonful of
the tea in which he had soaked a morsel of the cake, and no sooner had the warm
liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched his palate than a shudder ran through
his whole body, which made him stop, mindful and intent upon the extraordinary
changes that were taking place.
Now, Proust begins to feel an exquisite
pleasure invading his senses, and at once the vicissitudes of life have all of a sudden become
indifferent to him!
He’s quite wonder-amazed! ‘Whence
could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was
connected with the taste of tea and cake’, he says!
To Marcel Proust then, when his
consciousness is directed towards the ‘dunking of the morsel of cake in his
tea’, it makes facilitate the insurrection of a range of subjugated memories!
Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey is yet another
delightful rumination on revisiting Tintern Abbey five years later. Every
object that he sees here, impresses him to the core, and the “steep and lofty
cliffs” in especial, impress upon him “thoughts of more deep seclusion”!
Wordsworth confesses that, even years
later, whenever he happened to be all alone, or in company, or in crowded cities amongst the
madding crowd, the memories of Tintern Abbey help in providing him with such “sensations
sweet, / Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart.”
In philosophy, this experience is
referred to as intentionality, the capacity of humans to direct themselves at
objects! Brentano, could we call him a kinda guru to Husserl, says that, every
mental phenomenon includes something as object within itself!
Every mental phenomena, then, is directed
at an object, which we might call, intentional object or intentional
inexistence or immanent objectivity!
Hence it is that, every belief has a
believed!
Every desire has a desired! Every Love has a loved! Every Hate has a hated!!!
This capacity of
directing one’s consciousness towards an object/s is also called ‘Aboutness’ or ‘directedness!’
It’s called thus, since it is intended
towards, is about, or directed towards an object!
Intentionality, then, becomes the key to
understanding human experience!
So to sum it up for this once, for the
sake of this post, and for the newbies to intentionality as well, the hallmark
of intentionality, then, is the directedness of the mind towards an object!
Well, dear reader, is there any object or
event or happening that sparks a sea of memories welling up on your
consciousness the moment your thoughts are directed towards that particular
object or event or happening? Do mail me on that! I shall use it as a spark for
our next blogpost for sure!
To
be continued…
Connected reading -
You may like to read a few of our past
posts on the subject herein given below -
Memory, Eliot and Marcel Proust HERE
Kundera, Memory and Forgetting HERE
Herbert Spencer and Memory HERE
Simone de Beauvoir and Memory HERE
On ‘Flashbulb’ Memories HERE
A Few Super-Amazing Reads on Memory
Studies HERE
Holocaust and Memory Studies HERE
Images: all snapshots are the blogger’s!
;-)
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